2008 Partnership Award

In an effort to improve the overall health of women and children in Cambodia, Abbott and the Abbott Fund have partnered with Direct Relief International to support nutrition awareness, education and training programs for physicians, nurses and families at Angkor Hospital for Children, a leading pediatric teaching hospital in Siem Reap that offers free comprehensive care and trains thousands of Cambodian health workers every year. 

 

War and civil unrest have left Cambodia with some of the worst health statistics in the region, and the country's poorly developed and under-funded healthcare system only exacerbates the problem.

 

There is a severe shortage of well-trained health care professionals.

 

Cambodian women and children are particularly susceptible to malnutrition, and maternal and newborn deaths are unacceptably high.

 

 

In 2005, the Abbott Fund strategy was re-aligned to focus on improving access to care in disease areas where it had significant expertise and the greatest opportunity to make a positive impact, like pediatric nutrition.

 

At the same time, Abbott recognized that it needed to partner with an organization that could help deliver products safely and effectively to where they were needed most -- on-the-ground and in the hands of medical and relief professionals.

Prior to the program in Cambodia, Abbott had been successfully working with Direct Relief to improve maternal and child health in Afghanistan. Due to the success of that program, the company decided to expand its work.

 

Cambodia is a country with a significant unmet need, a need that is perfectly aligned with Abbott's strategy to support maternal and child initiatives.

 

Having worked in Siem Reap since 2003, Direct Relief was an ideal partner to help address this need -- an organization that operates with a remarkable level of efficiency, a fundamental understanding of local health challenges and a supreme commitment to improving the lives of women and children in Cambodia.

 

With the help of Direct Relief, Abbott was able to leverage both grants and in-kind product donations to help expand the capacity of Angkor Hospital for Children, a locally driven facility that had been in existence since 1999 but needed additional support to meet growing demand by members of the community. 

 

 

 

The partnership between Abbott and Direct Relief has made a significant impact over the past two years by supporting the on-going efforts of the hospital to train healthcare workers on counseling families and building awareness of the nutritional needs of children.

 

When children and their families visit Angkor Hospital, they come in not only as patients, but as students.  They receive the necessary medical treatment and are also educated on how nutrition is essential for healthy living.

 

So far at Angkor Hospital:

 

-  180,000 children have received health services 
-  100% of these children were assessed for malnutrition
-  300 children were identified and treated for severe malnutrition
-  10,000 women and children have benefited from Abbott products
-  4,500 families have attended daily cooking classes
-  6,000 families received food rations
-  372 staff and government health care workers have attended nutrition training
-  Number of ex-pat healthcare professionals has decreased from 15 to 5, allowing more local physicians and nurses to become involved

 

The partnership has received ongoing interest by the World Health Organization, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Doctors Without Borders (MSF), U.S. Agency for International Development, CARE and Cambodia's Ministry of Health in collaborating, replicating and scaling-up the program.

 

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